RetroSimba

The Cardinals gave Dave Collins a chance to extend his playing days and to begin a coaching career in the major leagues.

Collins, 37, signed a minor-league contract with the Cardinals on Feb. 16, 1990, and was invited to audition for a spot with the big-league club at spring training.

A switch-hitter with speed, Collins was an outfielder, but the Cardinals envisioned him as a candidate for multiple roles, including pinch-hitter, pinch-runner and defensive replacement for Pedro Guerrero at first base.

Collins won a spot on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster and spent the 1990 season with them. In 1991 and 1992, he was the Cardinals’ first-base coach and mentored players such as Ray Lankford, Bernard Gilkey and Felix Jose on base running and outfield play.

Career options

Born and raised in Rapid City, S.D., Collins was a top high school athlete in baseball, basketball, football and track. He ran the 100-yard dash in 9.6 seconds. A slender 5-foot-11, Collins was recruited by multiple colleges and opted to pursue a baseball career.

“I got a lot of offers and was seriously thinking about playing basketball, but I knew if I played it would just be in college and that would be it,” Collins told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “I thought I would have a better chance of becoming a professional baseball player.”

After a year at Mesa Community College in Arizona, Collins was drafted by the Angels in June 1972 and signed with them. The Angels had Dick Williams as manager and Whitey Herzog as coach when Collins, 22, made his major-league debut with them in June 1975.

Collins played 16 seasons in the majors for the Angels, Mariners, Reds, Yankees, Blue Jays, Athletics, Tigers and Cardinals, producing 1,335 hits and 395 stolen bases.

His best seasons were 1980, when he hit .303, scored 94 runs and had 79 stolen bases for the Reds, and 1984, when he hit .308 with 15 triples and 60 steals for the Blue Jays.

Bench help

Fifteen years after he coached Collins with the Angels, Herzog was manager of the Cardinals in 1990 when they went looking for a pinch-hitter.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the Cardinals pursued Keith Moreland, 35, a free agent who’d spent most of his career with the Phillies and Cubs. When Moreland informed the Cardinals he intended to retire, they turned to Collins.

“He gives us a little bit of experience and he’s better than what we had,” Herzog said.

Though Collins signed a minor-league deal, he said he’d quit if he didn’t earn a spot on the Cardinals’ Opening Day roster.

“I told them I didn’t want to end my career in triple-A,” Collins said. “Either I make the club or I go home. I feel comfortable I can still play.”

Chance to coach

Once the season started, Herzog was pleased with Collins’ fielding at first base, saying, “I really think he has played better there than I thought he could play,” but not with his hitting. Collins had two hits in his first 25 at-bats. When his wife gave birth to a son in June 1990, Collins told the Post-DIspatch, “If I make another out, my baby is going to weigh more than my batting average.”

In July 1990, Herzog resigned and was replaced by Joe Torre in August.

Collins worked to stay fit and make a good impression, running up and down the steps at Busch Memorial Stadium before home games. “I’ve been with eight organizations and this is the best one,” Collins said. “I’d like to stay here.”

Collins finished the 1990 season with a .366 on-base percentage, including .406 as a pinch-hitter. Torre asked him to join his coaching staff and Collins accepted.

“Collins has had some pretty good tutors along the way, like Joe Morgan,” Torre said. “Young players need constant surveillance, somebody to hook on to, to talk to.”

According to the Post-Dispatch, Collins would “instruct young outfielders such as Felix Jose and Ray Lankford” and “work on base stealing with those two and Bernard Gilkey, among others.”

Collins instructed veterans, too. At spring training in 1991, he helped utility player Rex Hudler improve his outfield play. Hudler said Collins taught “how to charge the ball, what foot to field it on, throwing over the top, and picking up a dead ball off the wall after you’ve chased it down. He’s given me a lot of tips and tricks.”

Resetting priorities

After the 1991 season, Collins took a job during the winter as head coach of a boys’ high school basketball team in Anna, Ohio, near Dayton.

“It’s something I always thought about doing,” Collins said. “Basketball was my first love. The only way I can still stay in touch with it is to coach it.”

Collins arranged for Cardinals and Reds players to compete in a charity basketball game at the high school. Players included Lee Smith, Rich Gedman, Milt Thompson and Tim Jones of the Cardinals and the Reds’ Barry Larkin, Paul O’Neill, Hal Morris and Rob Dibble, one of the relievers known as the Nasty Boys.

“If we’d have been charting fouls, Dibble would have fouled out before the game even started,” Collins said. “He was out of control.”

Asked about Lee Smith, the Cardinals’ 6-foot-5 closer, Collins said, “He can really play. He hit about 10 three-pointers.”

After a second season as Cardinals coach in 1992, Collins went back to Ohio and coached high school basketball again.

When Collins reported to 1993 spring training to begin his third year as Cardinals coach, his heart was tugging him back to Ohio, where his two toddlers lived, and where the prep basketball team he coached still was playing its season.

Collins asked the Cardinals to be reassigned so he could spend more time in Ohio. The club granted the request, making him an advance scout.

Collins’ departure from the coaching staff saddened Lankford, who credited him with being a mentor.

“You felt comfortable going to him if you had a problem, or if you weren’t sure about certain things,” Lankford said. “He made the outfield what it was _ Felix, Gilkey, myself. I’m speaking for everybody. We’re going to miss him.”

In January 2020, Collins joined the baseball coaching staff of Indiana University Southeast in New Albany, Ind.